So damage in one sea area may affect others."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and Norway have made commitment to jointly work to assure sea healthiness to reduce the impact of climate change on global sea condition, Indonesias minister of fisheries and maritime affairs Susi Pudjiastuti has said.
Indonesia is currently seeking to intensify a program to make the sea healthy through among others Marine Protected Areas, coral reef protection and conservation of mangrove in coastal areas.
"To meet the target and implement the program Indonesia certainly needs support from countries that have the same vision on sea protection. Norway is one of them," Susi Pudjiastuti said in a press statement received here on Thursday (Oct. 5).
She made the statement after meeting with Norways minister of environment Vidar Helgesen in Malta on Wednesday (Oct. 4).
Minister Susi and Minister Vidar met at UN Ocean Conference in New York in June in which Susi told about her countrys program to make the sea healthy.
At the meeting with the environment minister of Norway minister Susi also conveyed Indonesias plan to announce its commitment to meet the target of 20 million hectare MPA at the ocean conference in Bali next year.
She also proposed that Norway would allocate funds like when it allocated US$1 billion for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program to save forests.
Susi hoped funds could be allocated for countries that play strategic role to make the sea healthy like Indonesia.
She said she made the proposal based upon the view that each country has a role to play in the efforts to assure sea healthiness because all countries jointly possess one global sea.
"So damage in one sea area may affect others. In view of the vast sea and varied resources sea protection efforts that would be taken by Indonesia would give a good impact on the health of the sea globally including reducing the impact of climate change," she said.
In response minister Vidar expressed appreciation to various efforts that Indonesia has taken to make the sea healthy and her countrys wish to strengthen cooperation between the two countries through practical solutions to deal with plastic garbage.
She said cooperation between Indonesia and Norway in the fields of fisheries and maritime that has been developed so far needs to be preserved and further strengthened.
Vidar said Norway would support the ocean conference that would be held in Bali next year.
(Reported by Muhammad Razi Rahman/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
